Splitting Wood
It's (was) Raining, It's (was) Pouring
It’s Saturday morning. Debbie and Sam left the house @ 6:00am for a tennis tournament in Santa Barbara. Simon has found his way into bed with me. He keeps kicking off the covers. I notice that it’s cold. Real cold. The sun’s out but it’s cold. The week full of heavy rain, wind, and hail appears to be over. We plowed through about 1/4 cord of firewood and I’m wondering where have all the umbrellas that we used to own have gone to.
Simon Picking Up His Brothers at Ocean Charter
Like many things these days, severe weather in southern California is short lived. We got a busy schedule today. I just hung the laundry on the clothesline and my hands are cold.
The Stairway to the 3rd Grade
Ollie and Theo are playing The Game of Life (Simon is just watching) Henry is holding his own sports center by checking the scores from The Australian open and last night’s basketball scores while talking to lord knows who on the telephone.
Ollie's Froggy Boots
At 10:30 Simon is going to the park to play with his friend Sookie and her Omi. I’ll pick some cerviche’ up at La Playita for lunch and drop Theo and Ollie off at Riviera for tennis. Henry and I are going to Pauley Pavillion to see UCLA play Washington St.
To Splash or not to Splash...
Later on tonight Henry has his own basketball game. He’s plays at Penmar Rec. Center and is on the Bruins. They are 0-2 but just got a new kid who is 6′- 3″. I got this strange feeling their team is going to win tonight.
Henry and his Bruins
Dinner last night was homemade tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. I wanted to pick up some cheese at Andrews Cheese Shop, get some coffee beans and a bottle (or 6) of wine. Lately,  I’ve been buying my coffee beans at Terroir Coffee. Today I’m off to Intelligentsia Coffee in Venice. My cardiologist has suggested that I only have 1 espresso a day but I indulge myself  and go for #2.
A Cup of Intelligentsia
When I leave the coffee shop I see a rainbow towards the east and decide to use it as a sign and head west to see the beach after the storm. The parking lot is flooded and empty. The storm seems to have come and gone leaving a wind swept sea and crisp clean air.
A Puddle Picture
The waves are pretty big but blown out with no shape whatsoever. It’s nice though to take a few minutes and watch, to take it all in and take a few pictures.
Bay St. After the Storm
The beach is great what can I say. Rain or shine. The closer you get to the waters edge the closer you get to nature and yourself. Time is up. Time to start picking up the wee ones. First stop- The pool to pick- up Ollie.
Ollie Taking a Plunge
(Saying Goodbye-part 2)Diapers and Wood
Destined For The Rag Bin
Yesterday I saw a video of me changing Simon’s diaper. Sam shot the clip on his flip camera around November. For all you folks who change or have changed diapers it was one of “those” big ones. Anyways, in the video (maybe Sam will link it up) I am telling Simon these are big boy poops and you need to use the potty like a big boy. Perhaps as a Christmas present to us, Simon took himself out of diapers. He told Debbie one night, “No diapers, underwear.” Even though it is great having Simon in underwear, there is a side that is sad. He’s the last of 5 children. No more diapers,who would have thought we would mourn the end of 14 years of diapering?
Destined For The Wood Burning Stove
This morning I got up and started a fire with pallets and cut up seamless logs. I started practicing yoga and realized with my ujai breath that I need to get some real firewood. This afternoon my realization materialized in the form of 1/2 cord of seasoned eucalyptus and pecan wood cut to 16″ lengths. Hopefully, this will last till it starts warming up.
Winter Recipes and Rationings
With Winter weather still lingering in southern California, our supply of firewood has reached near end. Sometimes we have the wood burning stove going 24 hours a day. It’s a nice feeling in the morning when you open the door to the stove and see hot embers and you can rekindle your fire without striking a match. I’ve resorted to cutting old 9′ seamless background paper on the table saw and using twine to bind them to make colored paper logs.
Log Rolling
I once heard that a guy in Canada got on every catalog mailing list and heated his home with the catalogs for an entire Winter.
We also ran out of Nutella. So, we’ve resorted to placing chocolate chips and chocolate coins in our croissants in the morning. Here’s the recipe:
-Take a croissant
-Slice croissant down the middle
-Place ample amount of chocolate chips and chocolate coins in croissant
-Bake at 350 for five minutes or until chocolate melts
-Voila!
Another new recipe this week came from Debbie. It was meatloaf. Maybe Debbie will edit this post later with the recipe but all that matters is that the meatloaf needs to be draped in a pound of bacon. I remember a saying in art school, “if you can’t make it big, paint it gold.” The same goes for meatloaf, “if you can’t make it pig, drape it with bacon.” Does this make sense? If it does you’ve been to art school.
Theo picking his pieces early
